man pages section 1: User Commands

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Updated: July 2014
 
 

xman (1)

Name

xman - Manual page display program for the X Window System

Synopsis

/usr/bin/xman [ -options ... ]

Description




User Commands                                             XMAN(1)



NAME
     xman - Manual page display program for the X Window System

SYNOPSIS
     /usr/bin/xman [ -options ... ]

DESCRIPTION
     Xman is a manual page browser.  The default size of the ini-
     tial xman window is small so that you can leave  it  running
     throughout your entire login session.  In the initial window
     there are three options: Help will pop up a window with  on-
     line  help,  Quit  will  exit, and Manual Page will pop up a
     window with a manual page browser in it.   Typing  Control-S
     will pop up a window prompting for a specific manual page to
     display.  You may display more than one manual page  browser
     window at a time from a single execution of xman.

     For  further  information on using xman, please read the on-
     line help information.  Most of  this  manual  will  discuss
     customization of xman.

OPTIONS
     Xman  supports  all  standard Toolkit command line arguments
     (see X(5)).  The following  additional  arguments  are  sup-
     ported.


     -helpfile filename
          Specifies a helpfile to use other than the default.

     -bothshown
          Allows  both the manual page and manual directory to be
          on the screen at the same time.

     -notopbox
          Starts without the Top Menu with the three  buttons  in
          it.

     -geometry WxH+X+Y
          Sets  the  size  and  location of the Top Menu with the
          three buttons in it.

     -pagesize WxH+X+Y
          Sets the size and location of all the Manual Pages.

CUSTOMIZING XMAN
     Xman allows customization of  both  the  directories  to  be
     searched  for manual pages, and the name that each directory
     will map to in the Sections  menu.   Xman  determines  which
     directories  it  will search by reading the MANPATH environ-
     ment variable.  If no MANPATH is found then the directory is
     /usr/man  is searched on POSIX systems.  This environment is



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     expected to be a colon-separated  list  of  directories  for
     xman to search.

     setenv MANPATH /mit/kit/man:/usr/man

     By  default, xman will search each of the following directo-
     ries (in each of the directories specified in the users MAN-
     PATH)  for  manual  pages.   If  manual  pages exist in that
     directory then they are added to list of  manual  pages  for
     the  corresponding menu item.  A menu item is only displayed
     for those sections that actually contain manual pages.

     Directory   Section Name
     -           -
     man1        (1) User Commands
     man2        (2) System Calls
     man3        (3) Subroutines
     man4        (4) Devices
     man5        (5) File Formats
     man6        (6) Games
     man7        (7) Miscellaneous
     man8        (8) Sys. Administration
     manl        (l) Local
     mann        (n) New
     mano        (o) Old

     For instance, a user has three  directories  in  her  manual
     path  and  each  contain a directory called man3.  All these
     manual pages will appear alphabetically sorted when the user
     selects  the  menu item called (3) Subroutines.  If there is
     no directory called mano in any of the  directories  in  her
     MANPATH, or there are no manual pages in any of the directo-
     ries called mano then no menu item will be displayed for the
     section called (o) Old.

BSD AND LINUX SYSTEMS
     In  newer BSD and Linux systems, Xman will search for a file
     named /etc/man.conf which will contain the list of  directo-
     ries containing manual pages. See man.conf(4) for a complete
     description of the file format.

THE MANDESC FILE
     By using the mandesc file a user or system manager  is  able
     to  more  closely  control which manual pages will appear in
     each of the sections represented by menu items in  the  Sec-
     tions  menu.  This functionality is only available on a sec-
     tion by section basis, and individual manual pages  may  not
     be  handled  in this manner.  (Although generous use of sym-
     bolic links -- see ln(1) -- will allow almost any configura-
     tion you can imagine.)





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     The  format of the mandesc file is a character followed by a
     label.  The character determines which of the sections  will
     be  added  under  this label.  For instance suppose that you
     would like to create an extra menu item  that  contains  all
     programmer  subroutines.  This label should contain all man-
     ual pages in both sections two and three.  The mandesc  file
     would look like this:

     2Programmer Subroutines
     3Programmer Subroutines

     This  will  add  a menu item to the Sections menu that would
     bring up a listing of all manual pages in sections  two  and
     three  of the Programmers Manual.  Since the label names are
     exactly the same they will be added  to  the  same  section.
     Note, however, that the original sections still exist.

     If  you  want to completely ignore the default sections in a
     manual directory then add the line:

     no default sections

     anywhere in your mandesc file.  This keeps xman from search-
     ing  the default manual sections In that directory only.  As
     an example, suppose you want to do the same thing as  above,
     but  you  don't  think  that it is useful to have the System
     Calls or Subroutines sections any longer.  You would need to
     duplicate  the  default  entries, as well as adding your new
     one.

     no default sections
     1(1) User Commands
     2Programmer Subroutines
     3Programmer Subroutines
     4(4) Devices
     5(5) File Formats
     6(6) Games
     7(7) Miscellaneous
     8(8) Sys. Administration
     l(l) Local
     n(n) New
     o(o) Old

     Xman will read any section that is of the  from  man<charac-
     ter>,  where  <character>  is  an upper or lower case letter
     (they are  treated  distinctly)  or  a  numeral  (0-9).   Be
     warned,  however, that man(1) and catman(1m) will not search
     directories that are non-standard.

WIDGETS
     In order to specify resources, it  is  useful  to  know  the
     hierarchy  of  the  widgets  which  compose  xman.   In  the



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User Commands                                             XMAN(1)



     notation below, indentation  indicates  hierarchical  struc-
     ture.  The widget class name is given first, followed by the
     widget instance name.

     Xman xman       (This widget is never used)
             TopLevelShell  topBox
                     Form  form
                             Label  topLabel
                             Command  helpButton
                             Command  quitButton
                             Command  manpageButton
                     TransientShell  search
                             DialogWidgetClass  dialog
                                     Label  label
                                     Text  value
                                     Command  manualPage
                                     Command  apropos
                                     Command  cancel
                     TransientShell  pleaseStandBy
                             Label  label
             TopLevelShell  manualBrowser
                     Paned  Manpage_Vpane
                             Paned  horizPane
                                     MenuButton  options
                                     MenuButton  sections
                                     Label  manualBrowser
                             Viewport  directory
                                     List  directory
                                     List  directory
                                     .
                                     . (one for each section,
                                     .  created on the fly)
                                     .
                             ScrollByLine  manualPage
                     SimpleMenu  optionMenu
                             SmeBSB  displayDirectory
                             SmeBSB  displayManualPage
                             SmeBSB  help
                             SmeBSB  search
                             SmeBSB  showBothScreens
                             SmeBSB  removeThisManpage
                             SmeBSB  openNewManpage
                             SmeBSB  showVersion
                             SmeBSB  quit
                     SimpleMenu  sectionMenu
                             SmeBSB  <name of section>
                                     .
                                     . (one for each section)
                                     .
                     TransientShell  search
                             DialogWidgetClass  dialog
                                     Label  label



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User Commands                                             XMAN(1)



                                     Text  value
                                     Command  manualPage
                                     Command  apropos
                                     Command  cancel
                     TransientShell  pleaseStandBy
                             Label  label
                     TransientShell  likeToSave
                             Dialog  dialog
                                     Label  label
                                     Text  value
                                     Command  yes
                                     Command  no
             TopLevelShell  help
                     Paned  Manpage_Vpane
                             Paned  horizPane
                                     MenuButton  options
                                     MenuButton  sections
                                     Label  manualBrowser
                             ScrollByLine  manualPage
                     SimpleMenu  optionMenu
                             SmeBSB  displayDirectory
                             SmeBSB  displayManualPage
                             SmeBSB  help
                             SmeBSB  search
                             SmeBSB  showBothScreens
                             SmeBSB  removeThisManpage
                             SmeBSB  openNewManpage
                             SmeBSB  showVersion
                             SmeBSB  quit


APPLICATION RESOURCES
     xman has the following application-specific resources  which
     allow customizations unique to xman.

     manualFontNormal (Class Font)
                       The  font  to  use  for normal text in the
                       manual pages.

     manualFontBold (Class Font)
                       The font to use for bold text in the  man-
                       ual pages.

     manualFontItalic (Class Font)
                       The  font  to  use  for italic text in the
                       manual pages.

     directoryFontNormal (Class Font)
                       The font to use for the directory text.

     bothShown (Class Boolean)
                       Either  `true'   or   `false,'   specifies



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User Commands                                             XMAN(1)



                       whether or not you want both the directory
                       and the manual page shown at start up.

     directoryHeight (Class DirectoryHeight)
                       The height in  pixels  of  the  directory,
                       when the directory and the manual page are
                       shown simultaneously.

     topCursor (Class Cursor)
                       The cursor to use in the top box.

     helpCursor (Class Cursor)
                       The cursor to use in the help window.

     manpageCursor (Class Cursor)
                       The cursor to use in the manual page  win-
                       dow.

     searchEntryCursor (Class Cursor)
                       The cursor to use in the search entry text
                       widget.

     pointerColor (Class Foreground)
                       This is  the  color  of  all  the  cursors
                       (pointers)  specified above.  The name was
                       chosen to be compatible with xterm.

     helpFile  (Class File)
                       Use this rather than  the  system  default
                       helpfile.

     topBox (Class Boolean)
                       Either   `true'   or  `false,'  determines
                       whether the top box (containing the  help,
                       quit  and manual page buttons) or a manual
                       page is put on  the  screen  at  start-up.
                       The default is true.

     verticalList (Class Boolean)
                       Either   `true'   or  `false,'  determines
                       whether the directory  listing  is  verti-
                       cally   or  horizontally  organized.   The
                       default is horizontal (false).

GLOBAL ACTIONS
     Xman defines all user interaction  through  global  actions.
     This  allows the user to modify the translation table of any
     widget, and bind any event to the new user action.  The list
     of actions supported by xman are:

     GotoPage(page) When  used  in  a  manual page display window
                    this will allow the user to  move  between  a



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User Commands                                             XMAN(1)



                    directory  and manual page display.  The page
                    argument can be either Directory  or  Manual-
                    Page.

     Quit()         This  action  may  be used anywhere, and will
                    exit xman.

     Search(type, action)
                    Only useful when used in a search popup, this
                    action  will  cause the search widget to per-
                    form the named search type on the  string  in
                    the  search popup's value widget. This action
                    will also pop down  the  search  widget.  The
                    type  argument can be either Apropos, Manpage
                    or Cancel.  If an action of Open is specified
                    then xman will open a new manual page to dis-
                    play the results  of  the  search,  otherwise
                    xman  will  attempt to display the results in
                    the parent of the search popup.

     PopupHelp()    This action may be used  anywhere,  and  will
                    popup the help widget.

     PopupSearch()  This  action may be used anywhere except in a
                    help window.  It will cause the search  popup
                    to  become  active and visible on the screen,
                    allowing the user search for a manual page.

     CreateNewManpage()
                    This action may be used  anywhere,  and  will
                    create a new manual page display window.

     RemoveThisManpage()
                    This action may be used in any manual page or
                    help display window.   When  called  it  will
                    remove the window, and clean up all resources
                    associated with it.

     SaveFormattedPage(action)
                    This action can only be  used  in  the  like-
                    ToSave  popup  widget, and tells xman whether
                    to Save or Cancel a save of the  manual  page
                    that has just been formatted.

     ShowVersion()  This  action  may  be  called from any manual
                    page or help display window, and  will  cause
                    the  informational  display  line to show the
                    current version of xman.

FILES
     <manpath directory>/man<character>




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User Commands                                             XMAN(1)



     <manpath directory>/cat<character>

     <manpath directory>/mandesc

     /usr/share/X11/app-defaults/Xman
                              specifies required resources.

     /tmp                     Xman  creates  temporary  files  in
                              /tmp  for all unformatted man pages
                              and all apropos searches.

SEE ALSO
     X(5), man(1), apropos(1), catman(8), Athena Widget Set

ENVIRONMENT
     DISPLAY        the default host and display to use.

     MANPATH        the search path for manual  pages.   Directo-
                    ries    are   separated   by   colons   (e.g.
                    /usr/man:/mit/kit/man:/foo/bar/man).

     XENVIRONMENT   to get the name of a resource file that over-
                    rides  the  global  resources  stored  in the
                    RESOURCE_MANAGER property.

     XAPPLRESDIR    A string that will have ``Xman'' appended  to
                    it.   This  string will be the full path name
                    of a user app-defaults file to be merged into
                    the  resource  database after the system app-
                    defaults file, and before the resources  that
                    are attached to the display.
                    See  X(5)  for a full statement of rights and
                    permissions.

AUTHORS
     Chris Peterson, MIT X Consortium from the V10 version  writ-
     ten by Barry Shein formerly of Boston University.  Bug fixes
     and Linux support by Carlos A M dos Santos, for The  XFree86
     Project.


ATTRIBUTES
     See   attributes(5)   for   descriptions  of  the  following
     attributes:

     +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
     |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         |      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        |
     +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
     |Availability                 |x11/xman                     |
     +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
     |Interface Stability          |Committed                    |
     +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+



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